Bleach: Shadow Luster Arc
by Moguro Kupo
Summary: Strange things are occuring, new unknown Shinigami appear and a strange entity runs rampant. What could it mean? Could the two be connected? All that's known is that its up to Ichigo and company to find out!  OC Oriented Story
1. Chapter 1

All things Bleach and Bleach related are the intellectual property of Tite Kubo. In no way do I claim any of his work to be my own. Characters of my own intellectual property are merely introduced and interacting with a universe not created by myself. This is fanfiction. I would also like to take this opportunity to inform you of what timeline this story takes place. As the show managed to produce a filler season during the battle with Aizen, this story too shall be placed within that time frame. The reason being it is before Ichigo Kurosaki lost his Shinigami powers. As a writer, its just easier this way. - G

In the darkness of a laboratory, shied away from any source of light other that that offered in a large glass tube, floated a black mass. In the purplish liquid, only occasional bubbles could be seen be expelled from the mass. A label on the tube reads "Subject 1331-X (Unknown Form)". In a completely different area, all manner of scientists kept themselves busy, minding the monitors and tapping away at keyboards. Akon, one of the Shinigami of the 12th Division, surveyed the people who busied themselves but did so in a calm manner.

'Very quiet today. Even the Captain is away to keep himself busy...' He let out a small sigh and continued to find something to keep himself working. Back below, in the low lit tube, more bubbles began to emerge from the floating black mass and even expanded slightly in size. A small alert message was immediately displayed on the monitor Hiyosu was working on. He seemed a little confused by it, and observed the camera feed focused on the tube. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so far, just bubbles and a floating lump of black. Hiyosu simply disregarded it and continued back to work, seeing as nothing too exciting was going on. The bubbles then began to become far more numerous, and the mass began to expand outwards further and even discharged a purplish energy into the tube. Another alert message appeared in Hiyosu's monitor, this time it was much more urgent as the camera feed showed that this black mass was growing larger and larger. He gasped at the rate it grew, until it completely filled the tube and began to crack the glass.

'This... Isn't good...' He thought to himself as he prepared to say something to Akon, not far from where he was sitting. But before any word could be said, a massive surge of energy caused the power to black out. The Shinigami present in the room began to panic a little.

"What the...?" Akon looked around, confused that the power had actually gone out. The emergency generator kicked in, and all power seemed to be restored in the room. A sigh of relief came from many in the room, as Hiyosu looked around the room, and back at the monitor to check on the feed. The glass had been broken. As he looked on with fear, the room was then lit red as a loud alarm blared. The problem displayed on every monitor in the room. "What's going on?" Akon said as he ran to Hiyosu's side, looking over his shoulder.

"Not good, a subject in one of the lower labs escaped!" He said as he typed up the information on the specimen in the tube.

"Which one?" Akon watched carefully, when everyone turned to the main door to see Captain Kurotsuchi enter the room, Nemu closely following behind him.

"What the hell is this? What happened?" He shouted loudly, zeroing in on whoever might know what happened during the black out.

"It's terrible Captain... Subject 1331-X apparently escaped from containment!" Hiyosu replied, somewhat nervous by his Captain's fury.

"Impossible!" Kurotsuchi pushed Hiyosu aside and looked at his monitor. An expression of total anger was made clear on his face as he clenched his teeth together, knowing what escaped. "This is more than terrible... Its a catastrophe! Lock down the headquarters and get teams to capture the specimen! And track it's reiatsu! Now you fools!" He shouted at everyone, causing them to work as quickly as possible. "Nemu! I want you to lead the teams towards it!" He continued to shout.

"Yes, Mayuri." Nemu said quietly with a quiet bow, and left the room. A squad of about 12 Shinigami turned around several corridors to see the black mass shoving someone into a wall, and squeezing the life out of them.

"This doesn't look good!", "You're not here to state the obvious, capture it immediately!" Two Shinigami conversed with each other before drawing their weapons and charging straight at the creature. Elsewhere as Nemu assembled the capture team, she turned her head as she heard the screams of men down the hallway.

"L... Lieutenant Kurotsuchi?" One man asked with a quiver in his voice.

"It's coming." She briefly replied, as a large explosion erupted from the floor in front of them. The squad shielded their eyes from the dust and debris, while Nemu narrowed her eyes and watched carefully for whatever may strike at them. As the dust settled however, there was nothing there. The Shinigami looked around the immediate area to see nothing, and where left confused.

"This doesn't make any sense...", "Did it run past us?" They questioned among each other. Nemu approached the massive hole in the floor cautiously to see there was nothing below it. Suddenly, a scream was heard as one of the Shinigami was picked up as the black specimen was hanging from the ceiling. Nemu turned around just in time to see it crush the men below it and extend some kind of appendage out of its back and slammed her into the wall. She was pushed in with incredible strength, causing the wall behind her to break apart. As she fell to the ground and lifted her head up, the specimen continued to climb up into other levels and left a trail of destruction behind it. Nemu rushed to pursue it, while Captain Kurotsuchi watched the video feeds of what was happening.

"It's heading towards the exit!", "Our squads can't do anything to stop it!", "We're being over run!", "It's moving at incredible speeds!" All the people shouted out one after another, causing the Captain to twitch and let out a frustrated shout.

"You imbeciles! I'll deal with it myself!" He screamed, moving as quickly as he could to find it himself. By the time he made it to where it was heading, he also managed to meet up with Nemu, who was in pursuit as well. "Nemu? Did you see it? Was it here?" He asked, becoming increasingly worried.

"I was in pursuit of it. It should be here." She said before a loud explosion could be heard elsewhere. "What?" Kurotsuchi and Nemu both ran in the direction of the explosion to see it had escaped, and was effectively fleeing through Seireitei. "Shit! How could it have evaded us so easily?" Kurotsuchi continued to shout in frustration.

"What was it that escaped, master Mayuri?" Nemu asked, as Kurotsuchi breathed heavily from shouting so much.

"I... Don't even know. Had I known it would turn into something this remarkable, I would have kept it in something stronger than a damned glass tank!" As the alarm sounded through out Seireitei, the strange entity took into the sky, and fled into what looked like somekind of black portal.

Bleach Shadow Luster Arc

It was a sunny day with only a few clouds in the sky. The landscape was barren, much like a desert, and appeared to be in the middle of no where as not one person, or form of life seemed to be present. That is until the unmistakable cry of a Hollow echoed through the land. A young man with short, spiky brown hair came down with a battle cry. He was a Shinigami, and he was fighting a Gillian Hollow. The creature was massive, and easily smacked away the young man with only its nose. "Don't just rush in like that you idiot!" Another Shinigami, this one a girl with long brown hair and blonde streaks running down both sides of her face shouted. "Focus you two, squabbling in a situation like this is senseless!" Another, this one a man with straight black hair replied to the others' arguments.

"Who made you leader Delita?" The girl shouted back at the one with glasses, Delita. Watching from afar and listening to the 3 squabble, a middle aged Shinigami with blonde hair took a puff from his cigarette, and sunk his head a bit from watching the spectacle.

'They can't even handle a Gillian together...' He though with a groan. "Hey! The point of you guys being here is to take down a Gillian without using a shikai, not to argue with each other!" He shouted out to them.

"Shove it Sai! It's not as easy as you make it sound!" The girl yelled back at him.

'Seri sure does have a mouth on her...' Sai thought. The young man who was now falling righted himself and dashed through the air towards the massive Hollow again. "Don't rush it Kupo!" Delita shouted as Kupo readied to try and take another swing at the Hollow's mask only to be bashed away again. Sai then squinted his eyes, as if looking for something.

'Where is she...?' He then found his quarry, taking cover behind a small trench a ways out from the combat. "Hime! I remember you being in this exercise too!" Sai shouted at the long orange haired girl who jumped a bit when she was spotted.

"B, but I'm a better medic remember? You can't expect me to try and fight that thing... I'm no good." She said with a nervous giggle, rubbing the back of her head. "You're a Shinigami, have some pride! You've got a zanpakuto so use it!" He replied with a frustrated tone and scratched the side of his head. "I really don't know what he sees in this bunch..." He said to himself as he continued to watch each one attempt to make an individual strike, when the Gillian opened its mouth and began to form a cero.

'Uh oh, this is bad...' Kupo thought to himself as he composed himself again and waited to see where it was aimed.

"Seri! Look out!" Delita shouted, as the Gillian took aim at her.

"Shit!" She said, as Delita held out his hand at the creature.

"Hado #33, Sokatsui!" A burst of blue energy shot directly at the Gillian's mask, causing the Hollow to mess up its aim and fire in a completely different direction. 'Whew, saved by the kido.' She said as she observed the mildly injured Hollow that was now thrashing about wildly. "Hey guys, I think we have an opening!", "Yeah... You're right! Shall we use the double cut?" Kupo and Seri conversed, and she nodded in response. Sai took another puff of his cigarette and smiled.

'Heh, now they're getting it.' He thought as he watched the two of them run up the Gillian's flanks and rushed towards each other. As Kupo and Seri passed by each other across the massive Hollow's mask, they grinned as their swords sliced into its mask. Delita took a strike from above to slice right down the middle of the mask, effectively defeating the Gillian. The three of them landed on the soft sand, all breathing heavily.

"Nice one with that last strike Delita." Kupo said in between breaths.

"I had an opening, so I used it." Delita replied.

"Kupo! Seri! Delita! You did great! And you don't look injured either! Way to go!" Hime shouted at them, waving from the safety of her trench.

"Could have helped out a bit..." Seri muttered under her breath. Sai came forward to them clapping.

"Bravo. That's what you need to take down a Hollow with just your normal zanpakuto. Teamwork. Though I hope to see more from you in the future other than cowering Hime." Sai said to them as Hime made her way towards the rest of the group as well and chuckled nervously.

"I understand the exercise for the teamwork... But why didn't you want us using our shikai's?" Seri asked with a raised brow and her hand on her hip.

"To be honest, you don't know when one day you're gonna have to rely on your zanpakuto just as it is. The whole training thing was the Captain's idea." Sai explained to them all.

"So he was the one who wanted us to fight a Gillian..." Kupo reached behind the back of his head and held his arms there.

"No, that part was my idea." Sai took one last puff of his cigarette and flicked the butt away.

"Come on! It really had to be a Menos Grande? There probably isn't another Shinigami that had to work as hard as we just did to bring it down the way we did!" Kupo yelled at Sai.

Elsewhere, another Hollow let out a rather loud roar. This one was in what appeared to be a park not far from a familiar town scape. The massive Hollow swung its tail violently in one direction. Blocking the blow from the tail was Sado, who let out a loud grunt as he absorbed the shock of the blow with his left arm, using his ability.

"I've got its flank!" Ishida took aim with his bow, and fired multiple shots into the Hollow's back. It let out a cry of pain as it turned around quickly to swing with its massive arm.

"Santen kesshun!" Orihime said as a shield quickly stopped the attack of the Hollow.

"Thanks, Inoue!" Ishida said as she nodded in response. "Now, Kurosaki!" He shouted as Ichigo leaped over him and kicked the Hollow in the mask, sending it flying back a little ways.

"I know! Getsuga, tensho!" He shouted with a mighty swing of his sword, sending a brilliant blue wave of energy towards the Hollow and slicing it in half. He let out a small sigh in relief and put his sword on his back. "Good work guys! There probably isn't another Shinigami that had to work as hard as we just did to bring that Adjuchas down the way we did!" Ichigo said with a smile to the others. Ishida scoffed and fixed his glasses.

"Don't get arrogant, Kurosaki." He replied, retracting his bow promptly.

"If you're all not busy, I could make you dinner if you'd like!" Orihime cheerfully suggested.

"Thanks, but I need to get back home. Maybe another time." Ichigo waved to the others as he headed back towards his house.

"I already have plans, sorry. I'll see you at school tomorrow." Ishida also took his leave, leaving just Sado and Orihime by themselves.

"It's just us then tonight, Sado-kun!" She said with a warm smile. "S, sure." He said, thinking about the game he was going to miss watching while going to her place. As Ichigo began to make his way across the roofs of other peoples homes, he noticed the reiatsu of what appeared to be another Hollow. This one was pretty minor however.

"Tsch, not even one minute to rest. Aw well, I can take down one more on the way!" He said as he headed in the direction of the Hollow. In this situation, the spirit of a little boy was terrified as the Hollow stared at him with hungry eyes, and opened his mouth wide. 'Damn! Am I too late?' He thought to himself as he hurried as fast as he could to reach the Hollow before it could devour the boy. Suddenly, in a brilliant flash the boy was snatched away from the gaping jaws. It was a teal blue haired Shinigami who set down the boy. The Shinigami appeared to be a girl, but it did catch Ichigo off guard to see she was in the area, especially seeing as how he didn't feel her reiatsu initially.

"You'll be ok." She said to the boy, then she turned to face the hollow, and very quickly evaded its snapping jaws by elegantly jumping through the air, landing behind its neck with her zanpakuto stabbed right through the middle of the mask. She twisted the blade to defeat the Hollow, and jumped off as it dissipated.

'Who is that?' He thought as he approached the scene. "Hey, thanks for-" Before he could finish his sentence, she took off running in the other direction. "Hey! Wait!" He began to chase after her when he heard the boy behind him crying. He looked back to the child, and then back at the Shinigami. He let out a sigh and tended to the young lad, obviously scared out of his wits. The Shinigami made her way around a corner, back to an alley where she took a moment to rest for a moment. "You're in a hurry." A man's voice said, as she quickly turned towards the direction it came from, sword drawn. It was another Shinigami with slick, combed back black hair. With a sigh of relief, the she sheathed her blade and folded her arms across her chest.

"It's not polite to sneak up on people ya know." The other Shinigami just stared at her for a moment before he sighed and put on hand on his hip.

"You almost got caught back there. Others aren't supposed to be aware of our presence you know. This isn't your normal routine Hollow hunt anymore." He explained to her. She gave him a bit of a glare and looked off to the side.

"I'm still fairly new. Cut me a little slack Ryo." She growled.

"Hey, I don't make the rules. Take it up with the Captain if you've got a problem with it. I'm just making sure you aren't gonna blow the entire operation." Ryo simply shrugged and began to walk away. "Better get back to work, and this time use something we call, 'subtlety'." He waved back to her as he made his way out of the alley.

"Yo, Kon. I'm back." Ichigo said as he made his way through his bedroom window to find Kon, who was using his body, jump from surprise of his return and shuffled around the desk before turning to face him with a smile.

"Ichigo! Welcome back, I, wasn't expecting you quite so soon!" He replied with a chuckle. Ichigo raised an eyebrow and got closer to Kon's face, as if inspecting him. This was making him feel incredibly uncomfortable, and a bead of sweat rolled from out of his head.

"What were you doing around my desk?" Ichigo asked.

"Nothing! Not anything that you wouldn't normally do around the desk! Why are you bein' so nosy anyways? You should respect a guy's privacy. It's very important you know!" Kon explained himself, and folded his arms and faced to his left. When he moved in the chair, that was when Ichigo noticed something rolled up in his back pocket. He grabbed it, causing Kon to snap into action and attempt to get it back. "Hey! Give that back! It's rude to take someone's stuff without asking you jerk!" Kon flailed in an attempt to reach this rolled up object, but Ichigo was stopping him with only one hand on Kon's forehead. With the other free hand, Ichigo unrolled the object to see it was a magazine... But not just any magazine. 'Uh oh...' Kon thought to himself. Ichigo twitched before shooting a cold glare back at Kon. "Kon... What... The hell is this?" He yelled, holding the magazine which had a rather busty looking woman on the cover wearing exotic lingerie. The cover read, "Busty Women Of The World! Ms. Russia Bares All! Special Issue!".

"It isn't mine! I found it when your dad made me take out the trash! It must be his!" Kon replied, trying to justify his action.

"Liar! You're making me look like a pervert buying this sort of crap!" Ichigo continued to yell, waving the magazine in Kon's face. Kon simply grabbed it and pointed at the cover of the magazine.

"Come on! If I was lying about that, don't you think I could have come up with a better lie than that?" Kon yelled back. Then, with a quick and gentle knock masked by Kon's yelling, the door opened to reveal a concerned looking Yuzu entering the room.

"Big brother? Who are you yelling a-" Before she could finish her sentence, she saw the very magazine Kon was holding and pointing at. Kon looked back at her with a blank stare. "I... I... Big Brother!" She turned away embarrassed. "I didn't see anything! I won't tell!" She said as she ran out of the room.

"W, wait! I can explain!" Kon tried to say before the door slammed shut behind Yuzu.

"That's it! Give me my body back now you perverted bastard!" Ichigo yelled some more, grappling Kon into a choke hold. On top of a roof a couple houses away, the female Shinigami watched Ichigo through his window as the wind made her hair sway in the wind slightly.

'Hmm... Kurosaki, huh? It's strange...' She thought to herself as she stood up and began to walk away. '... To finally meet another Shinigami like me.'

To Be Continued


	2. Chapter 2

Bleach Shadow Luster Arc

Chapter 2

Thud! The sound of a large wooden staff thrusting into the floor, echoing through out the main hall of the 1st Division. This signified the beginning of a Captain's meeting and all were present, standing in a perfect line facing one another. Out of all the Captain's present, only Kurotsuchi Mayuri's showed a clear sign of stress.

"The Captain's meeting is called to order! I assume from what happened a few days ago, you all know why you're here." Genryusai said, and took a seat.

"The strange black entity that was seen flying over the 13th Division's headquarters, and several others if I'm not mistaken." Ukitake softly responded, with Kenpachi simply grunting.

"You had it easy. That thing crashed right through the 11th Division. During the middle of an interesting battle too..." He said with a scowl.

"If I'm not mistaken, according to the reports, this thing came from the 12th Division's headquarters. But the reason why it was there has yet to be explained." Unohana went on to explain, with Mayuri letting out a low growl.

"The entity was contained perfectly using the finest technology we had to offer. The entire incident occurred because of a lack of understanding for what it was we had." Mayuri stated.

"Then it wasn't the finest technology if you failed to contain it." Byakuya bluntly replied.

"Woo! He's got you there, Captain Kurotsuchi." Kyoraku seemed almost entertained by the comments circling the room.

"Oh shut up! Both of you! You have no idea what we are dealing with!" Mayrui snapped back at both of them.

"Enough! Captain Kurotsuchi, I believe it's best if you share with the council all the information you have on this so called "entity". We must have a better understanding of what we are to encounter when we track it down and eliminate it." Genryusai went on to ask.

"... It unfortunately may not be so simple. You see this wasn't acquired in the field at all but rather created in the lab about 8 years ago." Mayuri threw up his arms and shook his head.

"Created? By who?" Unohana asked, taken back by this knowledge.

"That is only vaguely known. You see one of my subordinates was working on some research about Hollow's and their reiatsu to invent new technology to find them faster and respond to Hollow threats with minimal casualties. However, as he delved deeper into this project's research he began to access old archives normally restricted to someone of his level." He explained, Ukitake raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of archives was he accessing?" He asked. Mayuri held his finger with the overgrown nail as he prepared his answer.

"This is where it becomes most interesting. They were old research documents confiscated from the 5th Division's headquarters. It seems the former Captain Sosuke Aizen was conducting research on the similarities between the reiatsu of both Shinigami and Hollows, finding the missing link that made us similar to Hollow. Such an idea was thought to be taboo, so the archives were hidden with the express instructions that only a Captain could access the files. Somehow this subordinate must have gotten access to them when I had overlooked them for my own research. With that knowledge it is quite possible he was trying to make..." Mayuri trailed off.

"You can't mean... Another Hogyoku?" Hitsugaya said, eyes wide open. Mayuri simply chuckled.

"No, such an idea was beneath him. He tried to take it one step further by actually artificially synthesizing his own Hollow reiatsu, and tried to merge it with some of his own reiatsu. The result was that strange black entity. Of course he was apprehended and dealt with before he had any opportunity to do anything else with it. And so, seeing as he wouldn't give up the secret to what it was exactly he created a team of scientists and I studied it for several months. Sadly, it yielded nothing and sat there for years as a black lump. Completely uninteresting and as we felt, unworthy of our time. Until it grew rapidly and broke free of containment with enough reiatsu to cause a black out through out the entire headquarters." Komamura stepped forward after Mayuri had finished explaining all of this.

"If I may, the 8th Division also experienced a black out momentarily during the time of the incident." He admitted.

"Heh, so that's why we had one too. I thought the generator was just acting up..." Kyoraku said nervously, scratching the side of his head.

"The 10th Division also experienced this." Hitsugaya added.

"Then you understand what we're dealing with is no ordinary entity. We may be looking at the world's first true Shinigami Hollow hybrid. Not anything like the Vizards or the Arrancar. But a whole new species... Who's abilities may be limitless for all we know. Like I said, we didn't get to understand much of it ourselves beyond what I just told you." Mayuri sighed.

"Hmmmm... This is quite serious. If with a reiatsu surge it can cut the power between 4 different headquarters, we are dealing with a threat to not only Seireitei, but the world of the living. We have no idea where it went, or where it could be hiding. I want dispatches to investigate the matter. I would request the services of the 6th, and 2nd Divisions to investigate Soul Society for this monstrosity's where abouts with the 11th Division on stand by if it is found." Genryusai gave out the orders.

"Yes, Captain Commander." Soi Fon replied.

"What about the 12th Division? We may need to collect important data." Mayuri argued.

"You've already done enough, Captain Kurotsuchi, and your actions will be dealt with later." Mayuri growled lowly when Genryusai said this. "Also, I would like the 13th Division to deploy to the world of the living to investigate if it may be there, or has been witnessed by any of the Shinigami stationed there." He went on to finish.

"D, deploy? My, it has been a while since I've been to the world of the living... But I will accept." Ukitake seemed a little nervous to be heading to the real world for some reason, to which Kyoraku just chuckled.

"You lucky duck. You've got the easy job from the sounds of it." Kyoraku made light of the situation.

"It's settled. You are all dismissed." Genryusai gave a swift thrust of his cane into the floor once more to signify the meeting had ended.

In the world of the living it was morning, and Ichigo yawned and stretched as the rays of the sun hit his face. He came downstairs after having showered and gotten dressed to the scene of his family eating breakfast. His father quickly jumped out of his seat and tried to jump kick Ichigo.

"Good morning son!" He shouted as Ichigo blocked the kick, annoyed his dad was testing him right from the get go. Isshin made a second attempt to attack with a punch, but that too was blocked and know the two had locked arms.

"Come on dad! It's 7 in the morning!" Ichigo griped.

"Heh, you've learned well. I suppose your reflexes are sharp enough today." He unlocked arms with Ichigo and took a seat at the table. Ichigo followed and sighed as Yuzu placed the food on the table.

"It's ready! Be sure to eat it all everyone!" She said with a cheer. As everyone dished up, Isshin leaned in closer to Ichigo to get a good look at him.

"So, Yuzu tells me you came into the possession of a dirty magazine yesterday..." He stated quite bluntly, causing Ichigo to almost choke on his food.

"T, that wasn't mine! It belonged to somebody else!" Ichigo tried to explain.

"Yeah right. That's a really lame lie big brother. You're such a pervert." Karin seemed almost disgusted to hear about this.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. You're just a healthy young man! Although I will inquire about how someone as young as yourself were able to acquire such an item later." Isshin said, almost in a threatening way.

"I changed my mind, you're both perverts." Karin added.

"It wasn't mine!" Both Ichigo and Isshin replied at the same time. Both Karin and Yuzu, and even Ichigo stared at their father for a moment. He seemed quite dumbfounded, seeing as no one asked him if it was his. He then broke the tension by clearing his throat. "H, hrm. Better eat fast Ichigo, you don't want to be late for school."

"Yeah, yeah." Ichigo just sighed, hoping this whole thing would just blow over eventually. After the circus that was breakfast, Ichigo couldn't help but think about some of yesterday's events. In particular he remembered about the girl who had defeated the Hollow and rescued the boy. 'It was strange... I would have thought another Shinigami would have at least acknowledged I was there, but she just took off. Was she hiding something? Or maybe there was just another Hollow she needed to deal with...' As he thought this, a girl ran in front of him and turned a corner.

"Sorry!" She said as she rushed past him. She was wearing the same uniform issued at his school, but this girl was no stranger. She was the girl from the day before, Ichigo knew this.

'That was her! I know it was! I'd recognize that hair anywhere!' He thought as he turned around the corner in pursuit. "Hey, wait!" He shouted, but it was too late. She already was no where to be seen. He walked down the path a little and looked around for her. He seemed disappointed and also confused. 'Just what is going on around here?' He then turned back the way he came and headed towards his school. As the students were getting settled in, he set his school bag beside his desk and slumped in.

"Good morning, Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime quickly greeted him with a warm smile.

"Yo, Inoue." He said with a sigh and held his hands behind his neck. She looked on curiously, as he could tell he was stuck thinking about something.

"Is everything ok?" She asked. Ichigo gave a nod.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I just... Saw something strange yesterday. It was a Shinigami, and she saved this little boy from a Hollow. She seemed skilled, but when I stopped to ask who she was she just took off. And then earlier today I saw someone who looked just like her, but when I tried to follow her she disappeared. It was weird." He explained as Orihime did the best she could to listen to him and nodded a few times.

"Hmmm... It probably was just a coincidence, I run into lots of people that look like you and Ishida-kun. Even people that look like me!" She said with a smile.

"... Really?" He gave her a blank stare. She paused for a moment and then chuckled nervously.

"Well, not really anyone that looked like me. I guess I was trying to just make a good example Kurosaki-kun." She went on to say, scratching the side of her face with one finger. Ichigo just gave a light chuckle.

"You're probably right. I might just be thinking about it too much. I'm sure its nothing." He said reassuringly. The class began to settle down a little with everyone taking their seats as their teacher, Misato, entered the room.

"Alright alright, settle down you guys! I want you all to listen up and listen well! I know its like something out of a manga to be having to announce new students that arrive in my class so often. But for some reason all the new kids keep coming to this room, so I hope you'll treat this one as you would your own! She's new to Karakura town and apparently transferred here from Tokyo!" When she said this, some of the students murmured amongst each other as if this was something significant. Ichigo didn't really pay much heed to it as he continued to listen to Misato. "Now then, I'd like to introduce our new student, Tamiko Shirahata. Tamiko, welcome!" She said as the new girl stepped in. Ichigo's eyes went wide when he saw that this new girl, Tamiko, was the same girl he had seen yesterday. The Shinigami.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you all. I'm looking forward to working with you. And maybe one of you might just be lucky enough to get a date off of me in the future." Tamiko gave a wink to the class, and caused some of the guys to chatter amongst themselves about her statement. As she scanned the class, she noticed Ichigo who was just staring at her. She went a little wide eyed too, and tried to look away as she took her seat. 'Crap, I didn't think he'd be here. Great...'

'It's her! She's here in my class... Just who is this person? Is she following me?' He thought to himself, continuing to stare. Inoue couldn't help but notice Ichigo's expression and looked back at Tamiko.

'Is she the one he was talking about...?' She looked down at her desk, thinking about this.

After a long school day was over and the bell rang, Tamiko was attempting to walk away as fast as she could from the school.

'Please don't follow me, please don't follow me, please don't follow me...' She thought over and over again, quite nervous that she had been found out.

"You! Wait!" Ichigo said, catching up to her.

'Rats...' She then turned to face him and gave him a nervous smile. "Wow, didn't remember my name and you're stalking me. Making quite a first impression aren't you?" She teased.

"I saw you yesterday. I know you're a Shinigami. Why did you run away when I tried to talk to you?" He asked.

"First of all, I got places to be. I'm pretty busy you know. Second, you might want to put a lid on that Shinigami thing." Tamiko turned around and tried to walk away.

"Well at least tell me why you're here. Which Division are you with? Why are you in my school?" Ichigo began to push with his questions. Tamiko turned a heel, and her expression clearly showed she was frustrated.

"Now you're starting to get annoying! I don't know what you're talking about, alright? Just leave me alone!" She yelled at him.

"What are you hiding...?" Ichigo narrowed his eyes, now becoming quite suspicious of her. Tamiko glared at him as he stared back at her.

"I'm not hiding anything." She growled, looked off to the side.

"Did you get that gigai from Urahara?" Ichigo asked yet another question, irritating Tamiko further.

"Hey! Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime said as she ran to catch up with Ichigo and Tamiko.

'Great, now I get to be grilled by this guy and the air head.' She groaned with frustration.

"Inoue... Wait, I need to ask this girl something." Ichigo looked back at Tamiko.

"My name is Tamiko, not "you", or "girl" buddy." She puffed her face up.

"Kurosaki-kun, is this the Shinigami you saw yesterday?" Orihime asked.

"Ugh, I don't know what you guys' problem is with me, but I'm just trying to do my job. And if you wouldn't mind I don't feel like telling you both my entire life's story! So would you just-" Before she could finish what she was saying, a familiar alarm sound rang from Ichigo's pocket. He pulled out his badge to see it was indicating a Hollow was near by.

'Figures.' He thought as he looked back up to see that Tamiko also had a badge that looked exactly like his, indicating the Hollow. "Wait a minute... You're-" Before Ichigo could finish what he was saying, Tamiko popped a green pill to swap herself out for a modsoul. As a Shinigami she quickly took off, leaving behind Ichigo and Orihime. The mod soul quickly walked away as well with a strange grin on her face.

"K, Kurosaki-kun... She had a badge just like yours..." Orihime stated with a look of concern.

"I know... She's... Another Substitute Shinigami."

To Be Continued


End file.
